Every Child Counts Act

Every Child Counts Act

Amends the school improvement program under part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to allow states to establish alternate academic achievement standards and assessments for students who have the most significant cognitive disabilities.

Requires the alternate standards to meet certain conditions, including that they:

• are aligned with the state's challenging academic content and achievement standards;
• provide access to the general curriculum for the grade in which the student is enrolled; and
• establish, at a minimum, two levels of achievement (on-target and advanced) that indicate that a student meets or exceeds the state's proficient level of academic achievement; and
• establish, at a minimum, a third level of achievement (catch-up) that provides information about a student's progress toward proficiency.

Requires each state using alternate assessments to ensure that: (1) not more than 1% of the total number of all students in each grade level in the state who are assessed in a subject are assessed using the alternate assessments, (2) the state's regular academic assessments remain accessible to all students, and (3) the alternate assessments are peer reviewed and based on the best available evidence.

Allows each state to count students who are determined to be proficient using such alternate assessments in its determination of the percentage of the state's students who are meeting or exceeding the state's academic content and achievement standards.

Requires states' annual report cards to: (1) include the number and percentage of disabled students who take the alternate assessments; and (2) break that information down by grade, subject matter, and disability type.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov